'It’s her mother’s dream that she gets her high school diploma'

Program provides specialized classroom setting for young autistic woman

SYDNEY RIVER — When behavioural issues made it very difficult to keep Noelle Cormier in her school last fall, her family, care provider and the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board came up with a solution to fit her unique needs.

Originally from Cheticamp, she has lived in a few care homes for people with mental illness in the Sydney area since she was 12.

A resident of Breton Ability Centre for the past two years, Cormier will now follow an individual program plan designed to meet her needs and it’ll eventually lead her to earning her high school diploma.

Last October, the centre and the school board entered into an arrangement to bring a specialized classroom setting to Breton Ability Centre.

Her mother, Della Cormier, said her daughter’s inability to properly communicate emotions, and when she felt pain put herself and others at risk while attending classes at Riverview Rural High School in Coxheath.

Noelle has taken the T-TAP program at Riverview. In its long form, the TEACCH-Transition to Adulthood Program will help her adopt skills she’ll need in everyday life.

This method of instruction through a positive behavioural support framework looks to end abusive behaviour.

“I think she’ll adjust very well because she likes to be occupied, (and) she loves to do new stuff and learn new things. She likes to keep busy,” her mother Della said in an interview Monday at Breton Ability Centre.

“She has bad days like we all do but mostly she’s doing pretty good.”

Della said Noelle works best with visual cues. The room, on the second floor of the Breton Ability Centre, is structured and organized to allow students like Noelle to accomplish tasks without raising her anxiety level.

It involves everyday tasks such as organizing a place setting at a table, or hanging and folding laundry.

All items are labelled and a work schedule for Noelle and other students who have yet to join the program also hangs on the wall, said Catherine Orychock, a behavioral interventionist at Breton Ability Centre.

“In the event somebody is having a difficult day, it really breaks it down to show them this is what you’re going to be doing next and what your expectations are for the day.”

The Cape Breton-Victoria board’s autism consultant Louise Smith, along with a teacher from Riverview, will be training staff at Breton Ability Centre on how to use the specialized classroom.

“We have these dedicated programs in 11 of our junior high and high schools within our board. The thing that we notice most about the students going into these spaces is that it’s something they look forward to because I think it gives them an opportunity where they can be independent and be successful,” she said.

“We see such a change in self-esteem with a lot of individuals because so much of what individuals with more significant challenges spend much of their days dependent on other people to help them complete everything. They don’t get that sense of accomplishment of being able to do things on their own.”

Harman Singh, the executive director of Breton Ability Centre, echoes the sentiment that the program will improve a person’s quality of life.

She said another overarching benefit of this structure would be a reduction in “challenging behaviours.”

“She has a lot of difficulty regulating herself and all the noise in the high school setting, as you could imagine, was a little bit overwhelming for her,” Singh said.

“It was sad because she’s been in school all these years and it’s her mother’s dream that she gets her high school diploma.”

There are four other young adults at the centre who will be able to benefit from this classroom program, she added.

Singh said the program doesn’t have an age limit so that any of the residents will be able to take advantage of the program.

Della Cormier holds out much hope for this program and how it could assist her daughter into the future.

“Once she masters one thing, they’ll move on to something else that she can learn … and they’ll evaluate how she’s getting along,” said Cormier.

“She could only go to school until she’s 21, but this way they’ll keep this ongoing for years and years to come.”

Comments

Recent comments

It is really to bad that the Govt., closed the Nova Scotia Training Centre in Bible Hill Nova Scotia many years ago. It helped many mentally challenged individuals with the same training that the Breton Ability Centre is now trying to do. The clients went home for vacations and holidays and graduated at the age of 18.
Good luck Della and Noella.....

Was a little overwhelmed reading this article as I had a son who was Special Needs. I remember teachers being so kind and understanding to him and also the teachers who talked about him as if he was not in the classroom.
. I am so Happy for you and your daughter, never give up when people tell you that it can't be done.. because in their own way they are survivors and teach others in so many different ways. Bless you and your support staff and Noelle.